What's In A Name?
by starry-eyed-miko
Summary: Oneshot. It's storytime with Gramps, and with a reluctant 13 year old for his audience, he tells the story of a great miko warrior...too bad there's no way in heck it could be true. At least that's what Kag..er, Suteki thinks.


So...I was cleaning up the files on my computer today, and I found this. According to the "Properties" thinger, I made it in the beginning of June last year. So I decided, "Hey, why not post it and see if it's any good?"

Yes, I wrote this BEFORE I knew what happened to Kikyou (to all of you who are "Huh?", then yes, she finally dies for good, and no, it's not aired, cuz the anime was cancelled before that. It' really sweet, and really sad, and I'm really, really angry I can't read Japanese and it's taking the boss-people FOREVER to dub all the manga's into English and bring 'em over to North America. Wow, was that a run-on-sentence and half there, or what?).

This is just one of those stories that my brain went "Hey, why not write it?". I found a couple drabbles today as well that I might finish and turn into one-shots, or even a new story. AFTER _Imaginary _is done, of course :P

**XXXXXXXXXX**

Kagome let out a low groan as she swept the stone steps leading up to the Higurashi Shrine.

Day in, and day out, she would come home from school and take on her responsibilities as "miko-in-training"...or whatever the heck that meant.

And also day in, and day out, her grandfather would babble on about the family history. Apparently, Kagome was descended from a powerful and great line of miko-warriors. Apparently, Kagome should have been proud to uphold the Higurashi name.

And obviously, Kagome was just plain bored.

Pushing aside a few shiny raven tresses, Kagome grumbled to herself. "Kagome"-this and "Kagome"-that. All she ever wanted was to be a normal teenage schoolgirl. With normal teenage gifts for her birthday each year.

No more demon's horns, or griffins toenails, or any other kind of ancient mythological "family heirloom". What ever happened to ghetto blasters and CDs? Even a magazine would be nice...

But, grandpa had promised that THIS year, he had gotten her something REALLY special. She was turning 14 after all, the least she deserved was some nice jewellery...

Feeling somewhat better now as she thought about the pretty pendant she had been looking at the other day with her mother was as good as hers, she stifled another groan as her grandfather approached with his own broom, eyes twinkling as he prepared to tell her another long and incredibly boring story.

That's all grandpa's story's ever were; stories, legend, myths. None of them were true. And still he continued to tell them, continued to believe...like a child all grown up. Sometimes Kagome couldn't help but feel jealous at her grandfather's wild imagination. Hell, she stopped believing in Santa Claus when she was six years old!

"Kagome!" hollered the old man, smile broadening on his wrinkled face.

Forcing a smile onto her own pale lips, Kagome gave a half wave as her grandfather came into hearing range.

Stopping beside her, the elder inspected the step she had been sweeping carefully.

"Ah, Kagome...you missed a spot." he directed, giving her a stern gaze. Kagome rolled her eyes and kept sweeping.

"Kagome?"

No answer.

"Kagome?"

Just ignore him...

"KAGOME?!"

Sighing, Kagome turned to face the old man.

"As of now, my name's not Kagome anymore." she declared with a small, dignified _hmph_. She was getting SOO sick of hearing her name a bazillion times a day...

"Oh, really?" her grandfather quirked an eyebrow. "Then what, pray tell, is?"

"Uhh..." Kagome scrunched up her face in thought. "Suteki...yes, I like that name. From now on, I'm Suteki." she declared with a triumphant smile.

"Pity," Grandpa countered, shaking his head sadly. "And your mother had put so much thought into 'Kagome'... did I ever tell you the origin of your...ahem..._previous_ name?" his eyes got back their familiar sparkle.

_Suteki_ sighed. "You're going to tell me anyway, aren't you?"

"Don't give me that tone, missy! I helped raise you!" Grandpa warned, waggling his index finger at her. "And of course I'm going to tell you! It's quite and interesting tale...one of my favourites really..."

_Suteki_ rolled her eyes once again, and leaned on the broom handle, waiting for him to continue.

"Well, it all happened about 500 years ago..." he started, also pausing in his own sweeping.

"You see, there was once a young man. But he was no ordinary man. No siree. He wasn't even a man, but a demon! But, on the other hand, he wasn't really demon either, but now I'm getting ahead of myself...

So yes. There was this man. See, he was lonely, for as I said earlier, he was not man nor demon, but both. He was a hanyou, or half demon if you may, a reject in both worlds.

No one cared about this young hanyou. Not one soul. His own mother died when he was young, and even before her death he was still ridiculed by the people of his village. They threw stones at him, called him a reject. A misfit. A monster. The only reason they tolerated him was because his mother was a fair princess, but after she died, they threw him out, bruised and bloody, still too young to survive on his own."

Kagome...er, Suteki...felt her heart clench at her grandfather's words. She hated these sad legends, where the heros led horrid lives and ended up dying horrid deaths. It wasn't the hanyou's fault he was born the way he was.

_Suteki_ felt her heart constrict more. If given the choice, the poor creature probably wouldn't have even _wanted_ to live...

"So the hanyou became wild and bitter. He trusted no one, and cared for no one. Not even for himself. He was pathetic in his own eyes, a hideous beast that should have never been created. So, he continued down life's cruel path alone.

Then, one day, he fell upon a village. There was a young miko there, and she possessed the Sacred Shikon Jewel—"

"You mean those dinky things we sell to tourists?"

"—No, not those dinky...hey! Those _knick-knacks _have the wonderful symbolic value of the real thing! 'Dinky' my foot..."

"There was a real Shikon Jewel?" she couldn't have kept the skepticism out of her voice, even if she tried.

"YES! There WAS real Sacred Shikon J— JUST LET ME FINISH ALREADY!"

_Suteki _fell silent, giving her grandfather quite the pouty look.

"As I was_ trying_ to say, this miko was the guardian of the Sacred Shikon Jewel. This jewel was very powerful, so naturally, the hanyou wanted to take it so he could become a full demon, and show the world what a _real_ monster was. So, he attempted to steal the jewel from under the miko's nose.

And yet, it never worked. He could never bring himself to harm her, nor her him. You see, the miko was alone too in the world, she was an outcast because of her unnatural spiritual powers, so even though people respected her, they also feared her. All she had wanted was to live the life of an ordinary woman, and yet she could not while the jewel was in her possession.

Well, eventually, the hanyou and the miko fell in love, and instead of using the Shikon Jewel to become demon, they decided to use it to turn the hanyou human. This way, the jewel would be purified, the miko could become an ordinary woman, and the now human hanyou and her could start a life togther."

Once again, _Suteki_ felt her eyes rolling in their sockets. Wasn't this how all stories ended up? _And they lived happily ever after, right? _She couldn't help but think somewhat bitterly to herself.

"But this is where our tale turns tragic," her grandfather then stated solemnly. Kagome cast him a glance. Maybe this story was going to be more interesting than she thought...

"A jealous bandit had lusted after the miko, and with his dying wish, he sold his soul and merged his burned flesh with a horde of demons, thus becoming the evilest demon of them all.

He too, wanted the jewel, not to mention the miko, all for himself, so he made a plan to turn the two lovers against one another.

Now, the hanyou still always held a seed of doubt about him, it was a part of him. He had always been betrayed by mortals, what made this one so different? So when he thought he saw his miko trying to shoot him down, he instantly angered and flew to her home village, ready to steal the Shikon Jewel and become a full demon like he had originally planned.

Now the miko had also been tricked. She herself had thought she had seen her beloved hanyou try to cut her open with his claws. Feeling betrayed, she stumbled back to her village, only to find it mostly in ruins. The hanyou had hurt her people as well? That was the last straw.

With her last bit of strength, she pinned the hanyou to a tree with her sacred arrow, putting him under seal forevermore. Thinking he had died, she soon followed him to the Netherworld, bring the Shikon Jewel with her."

_Suteki_ frowned as her grandfather paused. "That wasn't really the end, was it? They both just didn't DIE, I mean...come on. What kind of story is that?!"

Grandpa grinned. "It's nice to see you so enthused by my stories, Ka–_Suteki_. You haven't been this curious since you were still in di— "

"Grand-PA!" _Suteki_ whined. The old man grinned.

"Now where was I...? Oh yes, the miko was dead, and the hanyou under seal.

Flash forward fifty years. An amazing thing happened. One day, out of the blue, a strangely dressed priestess appeared, and took the seal off the hanyou. Because of this, and the fact that the Shikon Jewel had been ripped from her body, she was deemed the reincarnation of the hanyou's old lover.

But you see, the hanyou had reverted back to his bitter, violent, untrusting self, and took an immediate hating to this new miko. The miko's feelings (at first) were mutual.

But as time wore on, and the miko attempted to befriend the hanyou, he found himself in a predicament. Some of his old wounds were starting to heal, and he found himself trusting this girl with his very life, a thing he had never even completely trusted giving to his old love.

But then, disaster struck.

An evil witch brought back his old love from the dead, an evil, spiteful creature who wanted nothing more than to drag the hanyou to hell. But as they both discovered of the trickery, and how it had all been a misunderstanding, they found their old feelings still intact, and the hanyou promised that after he avenged the miko's death, that he would die for her as she did him."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa..." _Suteki_ cut in, eyes raging. "What about the other miko? I was beginning to think he cared about her more, I mean, the way you were phrasing it— "

"Let me finish!" Grandpa hissed. Teenagers...his granddaughter had had more patience when she was a toddler!

"But you see, the old miko could never drag the hanyou down to hell, for something about her reincarnation always got in the way. She had asked him whether or not 'that girl' meant more to him that she, but the hanyou could never answer, for he did not really know himself."

"WHAT?!" _Suteki_ screeched, nearly sending her grandpa toppling down the tall set of stairs. "He was two timing her?! And she STAYED with him?! Wow..." looking away, she made a face. "If that were ME, I would have left him the second he said he didn't know how he felt about me..."

Grandpa smiled. "Well, it all paid off in the end." '

_Suteki_ opened her mouth, but he beat her to it. "And you would find out if you'd LET ME FINISH!"

Clamping her jaw and nodding, she gestured with her hands for him to keep going.

"Time wore on. Days turned to weeks, and weeks into months, and months into years..."

_Suteki_ made a small, frustrated, scream-like noise through her tightly shut mouth.

Grandpa smiled. "As I was saying, years went by. Three, to be exact. They weren't alone though, they had teamed up with others in their quest, but still, I won't go into detail for today. Finally, after a long and bloody battle, the evil demon had been defeated, and it was time for the hanyou to leave with the dead miko for the gates of hell. But once again, something had stopped him.

The reincarnate miko didn't stand in his way this time. No, this time she let him go. She hugged him, and whispered the words he had secretly yearned for for so long.

...she told him she loved him.

She almost always had, and probably always would, and all she wanted was for him to be happy, even if it meant he was with someone else.

And that's when the hanyou realised that what he had felt for his old miko, and what she felt for him, had not been love. His old miko wanted him to die...with her...even if that meant giving up a happy life on earth. And he was no better. He wasn't going along with it because he loved her, no, it was because he felt obligated to."

_Suteki_ grinned. "So he ended up with the reincarnate miko?"

"Yes, he bid his old love farewell and safe journey in the afterlife. He wished her peace, and allowed her to die in his arms. But he didn't go with her. After all was said and done, he returned to the reincarnate miko, HIS miko—"

"And they lived happily ever after, right?"

"Well..." her grandfather scratched his head. "You could say that. They got in a lot of fights, but they still loved each other. They actually started the Higurashi line."

_Suteki_'s smile faded and she blinked. "And WHERE does my name come from all of this?"

"The reincarnate miko's name in the ancient scrolls was spelt K-A-G-O-M-E. Whether we pronounce it right or not, you're named after her."

_Suteki _quirked an eyebrow, in an almost exact copy of her grandfather. "Ancient scrolls? Yah right. Cool as that story was, there's no WAY that'd be possible. Demons? Spiritual power? Woman proposing love to two-timers? Sorry Gramps, but that's too far-fetched for ME to believe. But it IS cool to know about my name. I think I'll stick to Kagome again..."

Grandpa smiled. "It is quite a lovely name...and speaking of lovely things, your birthday present is quite lovely as well..." he murmured mysteriously as he restarted the sweeping pattern of the steps.

"Just one hint..._please?!"_ Kagome begged her grandfather, giving him her best puppy dog look.

"It's a only a month away, Kagome. You don't want to ruin the surprise now."

"But I'll probably forget in a month! I mean, I'm practically an adult now. So why not let me in on some adult secrets?"

Grandpa's eyes twinkled in amusement. "Alright. Want to know where baby's come from?"

Kagome's eyes widened in horror. "Please don't tell me that has anything to do with my present..."

"You'll just have to wait and see." her Grandpa winked, and turned to saunter back up the stairs towards the house for dinner.

Kagome made a face. "One month can not go by slow enough." she muttered in disgust before trailing after her grandfather.

**XXXXXXXXXX**

Yes, Kagome is turning FOURTEEN, not FIFTEEN in a month. I was originally going to make it fifteen, but then I realized it should be a longer length of time until then so she forgets the story. Anyway, it's kinda old, but tell me what you think :) Please?


End file.
